Till Death Does Us Part
by cogito-ergo-amo
Summary: OK, it' sbeen done to death, but James is married to Jessibelle and tries to kill himself, will Jesse be able to escape from butch and stop him?


Till death does us part  
  
OK, All chars are copyright and owned by Nintendo, not by me (yet) and the poem was not written by me, it's by an anonymous author, but the storyline is MINE, I came up with it, wrote the manuscript and typed it up, so I'd be less than happy if it got plagiarised! Please R&R, even if you hated it!  
  
********  
  
James perched tensely on the edge of the bed, chewing his nails. He glanced at the sleeping woman next to him. She was his wife, a thought that made him want to throw up. How could somebody who looked so much like his Jesse be so downright repulsive? James' skin crawled as he recalled the previous night, their wedding night. He'd known that Jessibelle was a domineering, power-hungry bitch, but he'd never realised before what a nymphomaniac she really was. He had lost track of exactly what she had done to him and for how long last night, but suffice to say that he was even more exhausted than the time he had partied all night and then gone straight into his final exam at Pokemon Tech. The only thing that had prevented him from pulling off his own limbs in protest was the thought of Jesse. He had spent the whole night ignoring Jessibelle, at least as far as he was able to under the circumstances, and had recalled all of his happiest memories from his time with Jesse. Well, it was certainly one way to fake a climax under cover of darkness. But now it was morning and James felt sordid. He began to retch and only just reached the toilet in the ensuite bathroom in time. As he threw up he prayed to all the various deities he could remember that Jessibelle wouldn't wake up. James finished vomiting and flopped onto the bathroom floor, his breath coming in uneven starts. Trying to inhale deeply and to calm himself slightly, James stepped into the shower. The hot water ran over his body and James scrubbed every inch of his skin, trying to remove all traces of Jessibelle whilst the water mingled with his tears. He'd given up his job, or rather; his parents had forced him to resign from Team Rocket, leaving Jesse without a partner. James tried to tell himself that she could achieve so much more without him, but he dismissed this thought as trying to rationalise away his guilt. Guilt, which welled up inside of him and he wiped tears from his eyes as he cursed himself for wallowing in such self pity even though his emotions were unbearable; they coursed through his veins and he hated himself all the more. "How could I have let this happen?" James asked himself, repeatedly. He wanted to put everything right, he shouldn't have spent last night with Jessibelle, and he should have been with Jesse. She should be his partner. He needed her, wanted her, but he knew that he might never see her again. Tears sprung back into his eyes at this though. He thought about Jesse, Team Rocket, Meowth, even about the twerps and his depression reached a new low as he realised that he might never see any of them ever again. All that he now had left to remind him of his life pre-marriage was Weezing and Victreebell, but he couldn't spend time with them whilst his wife was around, she hated them almost as much as she hated Growlie. Growlie! An idea occurred to James. Growlie had his own mansion, the servants hardly ever went there, it would be the perfect place for James to lie low, even if it was only for a day, he would be able to get his head straight. Of course, he'd have to return at night. James shuddered at the prospect of another night with Jessibelle. He quietly crept into the bedroom, silently pulled on a T-shirt and shorts and ran out of the summerhouse where they were honeymooning and made for Growlie's mansion. He slowly opened the door and beamed as his favourite Pokemon ran to him, barking happily. James sat heavily down on a couch and Growlie jumped up next to his master, nuzzling him affectionately. James sighed wearily and wrapped his arms around Growlie. "Ohh, Growlie, what am I going to do? Jesse probably hates me now and I hate Jessibelle, but there's no way I can get out of this marriage. My parents have already started talking about grandchildren..." James shuddered at the thought, held his head in his hands, and continued "I think the only thing I can do is end it all. You and Jesse are the only things that I would hate to leave, but I really can't bear to stay on this earth, I can't live with Jessibelle and I can't live without Jesse. I'm sorry Growlie." The canine gazed at James through huge, sad brown eyes and whimpered softly. James once again found himself blinking back tears. "Don't make this harder than it is Growlie. If there was another way out then I'd take it, but there just isn't. I'm sorry." The whimpering of the growlithe became persistently louder. "Growlie, stop it, please." Growlie ignored his master and started barking. "Stop it Growlie! I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do!" Growlie leapt down from the sofa and began snarling at James, who finally snapped. The tears lurking at the back of his eyes finally spilled down his cheeks. James flung his arms around the Pokemon. "Growlie, I'm so sorry.... I don't want to hurt you...but if I can't be with Jesse..."He trailed off, sobbing into Growlie's fur. James cried for over an hour, Growlie occasionally licking his face sympathetically. James eventually pulled away from Growlie and smiled weakly but his smile turned to shock and terror as the door burst open.  
  
"Well I do declare! I ain't never been so worried! Why'd you run away like that darlin'?" James winced, that voice cut through him like a knife. He avoided eye contact with the woman and instead stared at her dress. He focused on how awful she looked in it and he wondered how she could look so dreadful in something that would look so good on Jesse. Had he not been so depressed, James would have dwelled on the thought of Jesse wearing a dress with that daring a neckline, but he cast his eyes to the floor, fighting off nausea, and much as it pained him, replied  
  
"I'm so sorry.... honey, I just wanted to check how Growlie was doing."  
  
"You spend more time with that...thing than you do with me! I don't know what you see in a such a disgusting creature!" James realised the irony in her statement; it was exactly what he felt like saying to his parents when he had first met Jessibelle. He glanced at Growlie who was growling almost inaudibly with hatred. James felt the anger rise up inside of him. He could just about cope with faking affection for Jessibelle at the best of times, but not when he heard her speak that way about one of his only friends.  
  
"Don't you ever say things like that about Growlie. He's been with me for my whole life, I refuse to let you say such untruthful things about him." Jessibelle shot him a glare that would frighten Mewtwo and pulled out a whip.  
  
"Looks like that dog ain't the only one around here who needs a bit o' discipline."  
  
********  
  
Butch's breath felt hot on Jesse's face. She had tried to push him away but he was stronger than her and had pinned her arms to the wall. "Y'know Jess" he grunted "If we're going to be working together, I think we should get to know each other better. A LOT better." He roughly forced her to kiss him, Jesse's eyes widened in alarm and she rapidly brought her knee up into his groin, sending Butch staggering backwards. Jesse, seizing the opportunity, grabbed Butch by the throat and shoved him up against the wall.  
  
"You ever try to pull anything like that again and I'll rip your arms off." Jesse's eyes glinted manically, as if she were close to the edge. After James' departure two days ago, Giovanni had wasted no time in promoting Cassidy to his right-hand woman with Meowth as her personal servant leaving Jesse and Butch to work together as Team Rocket phase two. Jesse wished that she had quit at the same time as James but she hadn't had the chance. There were no words strong enough to describe how much she missed James and Butch coming onto her at every opportunity hardly made her life seem any better. "Butch, I'm not even slightly interested in you, get it? We're working together because we were forced, not because I wanted to be with you."  
  
"Aww, come on Jess, you know you love me really."  
  
"I hate you more than words can express. I love James and nobody else." Jesse instantly regretted giving Butch this piece of information as he tried to grab her again.  
  
"Well Jessica, we'll have to see if we can't change your mind."  
  
********  
  
James winced as he pulled a clean shirt over the lashes on his back. He cursed himself for allowing Jessibelle to treat him so badly. He couldn't stand even the thought of another day of marriage to the psycho his parents had chosen for him. Even when they had been children and had played together on the estate, Jessibelle had scared James. He shuddered as he recalled the numerous dolls' tea parties when Jessibelle had been insistent that he wasn't sitting properly or wasn't eating properly. Nobody seemed to understand that he didn't want to live his life according to what was "proper" in other people's eyes. He wanted to live his life his way. Jesse had always let him be himself. Tears stung the back of his eyes as he once again began thinking about Jesse. He remembered all of the times they had fallen out and then made up again, all of the times they had failed, their few successes. Every single thing that had happened, they had stood together and been strong. Fate had thrown them together and for once fate had gotten it right. What hurt James the most was that he had never admitted his true feelings to Jesse. As he considered this thought he realised that there had never seemed any immediate need to do so. They had taken each other for granted, each one of them believing that they would be with the other forever. They probably would have been together still if it weren't for the intervention of his parents. James wasn't sure who he hated more, Jessibelle herself or his parents for forcing her on him in the first place.  
  
James pushed his hair out of his eyes and stared at himself in the wardrobe mirror. He couldn't live like this. He could run away, but he would still be married. He had to do something drastic and he had to do it tonight.  
  
********  
  
Jesse curled up on her bed, tears streaming down her cheeks. She picked up her hand mirror and examined her black eye. Her cold fingertips passed lightly over the bruise and she grimaced as she saw the blood still oozing from the fresh wound on her right cheek. Jesse stepped off the bed to look for some clothes but she fell straight back down as she applied pressure to her sprained ankle. She had tried to resist Butch, but she had been no match for him when he was angry. She had tried her hardest to defend herself, but even streetwiseness and knowledge of self-defence hadn't done much to prevent him from taking advantage of her. Jesse held her head in her hands and sobbed. She missed James; she needed him here with her. He was the only person she had ever loved since her mother had disappeared. She didn't trust anybody else any more. Her mind rested for a fleeting second on suicide but she instantly dismissed this idea. Suicide would be the easy way out and she was stubborn, a thought that brought a half-smile to her lips for a split second. "Besides which" Jesse mused, "However bad it is now, it could be worse. At least I'm not a twerp." She giggled, but her laughter sounded cold, hollow and forced. Jesse wrapped herself in a fluffy red bathrobe and limped to the bathroom of the quarters she now shared with Butch. Despite all her best efforts at optimism however, Jesse couldn't stop the fresh tears as she showered, nor could she fight off the overpowering nausea. Feeling herself begin to retch, she leaned over the sink and noted that her lunch really didn't look that appetising after it had spent two hours in her stomach.  
  
********  
  
James re-read the letter he had written for Jesse. No matter how often he read it to himself, it still sounded wrong. At last, with the letter in it's nineteenth re-writing, James admitted defeat and folded it up, sealing it in the envelope with a kiss and writing "to Jesse". He placed the envelope on a couch in Growlie's mansion. James had perfectly planned exactly what he was going to do. After dinner that night, he would creep down to his dad's gun collection and shoot himself in the head behind Growlie's mansion. It would be too late by the time anyone found him. Dinner would be over at 7:30; James would be dead by 8 o clock, if all went to plan. The young man glanced at his watch, 5.55, five minutes until dinner. James knelt down and hugged Growlie. "Goodbye boy, try not to miss me too much. I need you to take this to Jesse and stay with her until she opens it." James kissed Growlie on the forehead. "I'm sorry this had to happen boy. I love you." James tied the letter to Growlie's collar.   
Growlie licked James' face and watched through sad eyes as his master departed. Growlie was exceptionally smart and knew exactly what was going to happen. He ran through the door and sniffed the floor outside. Jesse's scent was still on the ground from two days ago. He picked it u and followed it, bounding as fast as his four furry legs would carry him.  
  
********  
  
Jesse quietly sat on the sofa, decidedly separate from Butch. He shuffled over to her, draping an arm around her shoulder with his other hand caressing her thigh. She shuddered and recoiled under his touch but she made no attempt to resist him this time, it really didn't seem worth it anymore. As Butch was making a move to kiss her, there came a scratching and a whimpering at the door. Butch groaned, "I'll get it" and reluctantly walked over to answer the door. Jesse sighed quietly with relief and allowed her muscles to relax. She heard Butch yell in alarm as a huge Growlithe bounded into the room and leapt up onto the sofa next to Jesse.  
  
"What the..." Jesse gasped as it dawned on her. "Growlie!" She hugged the dog and noticed the letter on his collar. She read the 'DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 7.45PM' message scrawled in James' hand and checked her watch. It was 6.40. She considered the message but decided to read the letter anyway. "Dearest Jessica" she read quietly "...By the time you read this I will no longer be of this earth. I want you to know that I love you more than words can express, and a life without you is not a life worth living. Please don't blame yourself. I'm really not sure what to say, but this poem says more than I ever could." Jesse's breath caught in her throat as she read the poem aloud.  
  
"Do not stand at my grave and weep  
I am not there, I do not sleep  
I am the thousand winds that blow  
I am the diamond glints on snow  
I am the sunlight on ripened grain  
I am the gentle autumn rain  
When you awaken in the morning's hush  
I am the swift uplifting rush  
Of quiet birds in circled flight  
I am the soft stars that shine at night  
Do not stand at my grave and cry  
I am not there, I did not die.  
  
Goodbye Jesse." A tear dropped down Jesse's cheek as she let the piece of paper drop to the floor. She felt her stomach turn and both of her legs gave way simultaneously. She fell back down onto the sofa, her features rigid and expressionless. Jesse checked her watch again, this time it read 6.50. She might still have time. She examined the dog sat in front of her and remembered how it had been able to carry James on its back, surely it would be able to take her? As if it read her mind, the dog nuzzled Jesse and motioned with its head for her to get on its back. Before Jesse had a chance to do so however, Butch grabbed her wrist.  
  
"Oh no you don't" he growled at her. Throwing all caution to the wind and not caring about the odds against her, Jesse clenched her fist and with all the strength in her body she swung at Butch. There was a sickening crunch as the blow hit him square in the face and his head snapped back. He fell unconscious to the floor. Panic-stricken, Jesse checked that he wasn't in any immediate danger, much as she hated him, she didn't want to kill him. He was still breathing, so Jesse wrapped her arms tightly around Growlie as the growlithe began to sprint back to his home. The pace of the dog was unfaltering as he sprinted, despite the length of the journey. Within twenty minutes they were back at the estate. Jesse prayed that she wasn't too late and she glanced again at her watch. 7.13. By 7.15 she and Growlie were crouched in the bushes behind Growlie's mansion. Jesse could hear Growlie panting; he was obviously exhausted from carrying her. Jesse hugged him tightly.  
  
"Thank you Growlie" Jesse giggled nervously as she realised that she was talking to a Pokemon. It saddened her to think that they were the only two people in the world who genuinely cared about James. She scratched Growlie's neck and the dog growled appreciatively. She didn't know how long she waited before she heard clumsy feet approaching. She saw James collapse onto the floor just a few feet from where she was crouching. She waited a few seconds and watched as he pushed his hair out of his eyes, which were reddened with tears, and he pulled the pistol from his pocket. Jesse's eyes widened and she sprinted forward, unheeding of the pain in her ankle. She screamed his name, which caught James off guard. Jesse grabbed the gun from his hands and flung it into the bushes.  
  
"Jesse! What the hell are you doing here?" James sounded odd, almost angry. Jesse was close to tears but managed to choke out  
  
"I couldn't let you die, you're the world to me." She hung her head. Jesse wanted nothing more than to fling her arms around James and hold him forever but she restrained herself. She needn't have done so; James pulled her towards him and embraced her tenderly. She hugged him back and buried her face in hid tuxedo jacket. He smelled good, he smelled of James and she had missed him so much it hurt. His voice sounded just as choked as hers had.  
  
"Jess.... you saved me. I love you so much. I'm sorry I never said it before, I'm sorry I couldn't stand up to my parents, I'm sorry I married that awful woman..." James was unable to continue. Jesse felt his tears mingling with hers as they stood, cheek to cheek. Jesse ran her slender fingers gently through James' tousled hair.  
  
"I love you too James. The last two days have been an absolute hell for me, I guess it's been no better for you." She pulled away slightly, so that they could look each other in the eyes. James winced as he noticed Jesse's black eyes and the cut on her face. He gently ran his cold thumb over her cheek. Jesse grimaced slightly and he instantly pulled away, apologetically.  
  
"Jesse, what happened to you? Oh, I'm so sorry, this never would have happened if I'd been there for you. Who did this to you?" Jesse was a little taken aback that James had instantly assumed that she'd been attacked rather than been involved in an accident or something, but she didn't reply, just shook her head and stared at the floor. James sighed. " I don't want to see you hurting Jesse, I love you too much." He wrapped his arms around her once again and she held him tightly. He inhaled deeply and smiled, Jesse smelled of roses and he couldn't believe how much he'd missed her in just two days. The moment was disturbed however by the sound of Jessibelle's voice. James froze for a second, and then glanced at the boundary wall next to them. It was just over six feet tall. He looked Jesse in the eye. "Can you get over that on you ankle?"  
  
"My ank...oh..." Jesse gave the wall a once-over. "Probably, if you give me a push up." James interlocked his fingers and Jesse placed her uninjured foot in his hands. He shoved her upwards and she regained her balance on the wall, then jumped down to the other side, still ignoring the pain in her ankle. James managed to pull himself up over the wall and Jesse marvelled at his dexterity. "What about Growlie?" Jesse inquired. James looked wistfully back at the wall.  
  
"He knows it's best for him to stay here." James' emerald eyes shone in the orange light of the sunset. The pair of them took in their surroundings. They were stood at the top of a gently sloping hill. There was a small wood at the bottom of the hill; it looked to be about 200 yards away. Jesse glanced at James and he grinned. He picked her up in his arms and began to sprint down the hill. Jesse buried her face in his chest, they both giggled like schoolchildren as James ran down the hill until they reached the wood. James set Jesse down on the floor and they knew that they were finally safe. James pulled Jesse closer than ever before to him and kissed her cheek. As he pulled away, they both knew what was about to happen; they read it in each other's eyes. She kissed him back, on the lips this time, with a fierce passion, as she began to unfasten his jacket and remove his clothing. He did the same to her until they were both naked and the ground was covered in their clothes. They lay down   
together in harmony, finally giving in to their feelings for each other, which had been suppressed ever since the first day they met. Yesterday didn't matter, they had each other, they were strong and no force on earth, not even Jessibelle, could ever come between them.  
  



End file.
